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It was Sunday, May 24, 1992 and Scott Goodyear was part of the greatest finish in Indianapolis 500 history.

For almost all of the final 10 laps of the 200-lap race his No. 15 Walker Racing Lola T92/00 was glued to the back of Al Unser Jr.’s No. 3 Galles/KRACO Racing Chevrolet.

Goodyear looked right, looked left, but at every opportunity to pass, Little Al would throw a block.

Coming out of Turn 4

on the final lap at the mighty Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Goodyear thought he saw his chance.

A couple of hundred yards from the finish line he moved to Unser’s inside getting a sling-shot effect that he was sure would take him to victory — something no other Canadian had done at the storied race track.

He got right beside Unser, wheel to wheel, as they crossed the yard of bricks.

Goodyear held his breath, waiting to hear from his team that he had completed the pass.

But it was not to be.

In the closest finish in Indy 500 history. The stop clock showed Unser crossed the bricks a hauntingly scant 0.043 seconds ahead of Goodyear.

To put it another way, it the difference between the two cars was about the width of a hair.

Goodyear would go on to finish second again in 1995, this time to Jacques Villeneuve, who took the honour of being Canada’s first, and so far only, Indy 500 winner.

In all Goodyear qualified and raced in 11 Indy 500s during his IndyCar career.

So it makes him uniquely qualified to talk about the event and what it will take this Sunday afternoon for a driver to win the 97th edition of the world’s most-famous oval race.

“The biggest thing at Indy is you have to remember it is a long race,” said the 53-year-old Toronto native, who has been the colour commentator with ABC/ESPN for the Indy 500 since 2002.

“There are so many drivers who come here and run strong, run hard and that don’t get to the end.

“It’s the old adage, to win you must first finish and that is really the whole thing that goes on here.”

Goodyear said he had a plan for every race at Indy.

“The way that I approached the race was to make it five-100 mile races,” he said.

That way he always felt he could put mistakes, like a botched pit stop or a flat tire, behind him.

Most importantly, he said, a driver has to be keenly aware of what the car is doing.

Goodyear said too many drivers think that talent alone will win the day, but he said it is using what you have under you that makes a winner at Indianapolis.

“Every time I came here I was always working on my car,” he said.

That part of his Indy education did not come easily for Goodyear.

“Don’t forget I never ran ovals growing up in Toronto,” he said. “All the racing I did in Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic, I never saw an oval until I got to IndyCar.”

It didn’t go particularly well.

“I did my first IndyCar oval test in the spring of 1990 at Phoenix,” he said. “The first day didn’t go too bad so on the second day I thought, ‘I got this’ so I tried to cowboy it up a little bit and I promptly hit the wall between Turns 1 and 2 and knocked myself out.”

It was a lesson he never forgot — know what the car is doing — and that is what he thinks younger drivers today forget.

“I had learn to understand what these cars need,” Goodyear said.

So he turned to four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears.

“For Rick its was all about making the car work,” he said. “He used to always say, ‘you know, I’m lazy by nature so I want the car to do all the work. So If I can get the car to do all the work its easier for me and if I really have to step up at the end and extend myself I can extend the car.’

“Once I got the handle on that I understood that if you do it in long races then you make the car better as the race goes on.

“So that is what I tried to do when I came to Indy.”

The other key to success at Indy, Goodyear said, is not getting distracted by the spectacle of it all.

“The drivers are here all month and it is a big, massive complex with 235,000 seats and it’s dark and it’s grey and there is hardly any people in the stands when you are practising.

“Then you come here on race day and all of a sudden you take the start and you can be really caught up by movement and the colours coming from the stands.

“First thing you know you are being lapped.

“If you want to win, you have to focus on your car from start to finish.

“Because the car is going to win the race for you.”

HONDA ROARS TO LIFE

Call it the revenge of the Hondas.

After being virtually shut out from the top positions on the speed pole all month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including not one spot in the top 10 in qualifying for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500, the Japanese auto giant struck back Friday during Carb Day, the final practice before Sunday’s big race.

Simon Pagenaud, driving the No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports Honda, turned the fastest lap with a run of 225.827 m.p.h.

He was followed by a pair of Chevrolets, Andretti Autosport teammates No. 5 E.J. Viso and No. 1 Ryan Hunter-Reay, who posted laps of 225.304 and 225.053 m.p.h., respectively.

Scott Dixon was fourth fastest in the No. 9 Target Ganassi Racing Honda at 224.870 m.p.h. with Sebastian Bourdais rounding out the top five at 224.848 m.p.h. in the No. 7 Dragon Racing Chevrolet.

“Honda has done a lot of work before qualifying and after qualifying, and Honda’s racing mentality is to go racing and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” Pagenaud said. “They provided us with an engine that is clearly a lot better, so it’s a good sign for the race.

Canadian lost the closest race in history but is well aware of what it takes to win

It was Sunday, May 24, 1992 and Scott Goodyear was part of the greatest finish in Indianapolis 500 history.

For almost all of the final 10 laps of the 200-lap race his No. 15 Walker Racing Lola T92/00 was glued to the back of Al Unser Jr.’s No. 3 Galles/KRACO Racing Chevrolet.

Goodyear looked right, looked left, but at every opportunity to pass, Little Al would throw a block.

Coming out of Turn 4

on the final lap at the mighty Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Goodyear thought he saw his chance.

A couple of hundred yards from the finish line he moved to Unser’s inside getting a sling-shot effect that he was sure would take him to victory — something no other Canadian had done at the storied race track.

He got right beside Unser, wheel to wheel, as they crossed the yard of bricks.

Goodyear held his breath, waiting to hear from his team that he had completed the pass.

It was a beatdown of monumental
proportions on Sunday when six
Chevrolets, led by the No. 2 Team
Penske Chevy of Juan Pablo Montoya,
crossed the start-finish line ahead of
the first Honda at the Verizon IndyCar
Series season opening Firestone Grand
Prix of St. Petersburg.